G'day Forum I am currently in the process of redesigning my work website. I dont have the technical knowledge to do it myself, however I know what I want, and how i want it laid out etc. The website currently looks like this www.australian-racing.net.au As you can see in the sites appearance, it looks a bit dated, a bit flat. I am hoping to turn it into something that looks a bit more modern, fresh, clean, crisp, advanced etc. I want the overall look of it to be similar to www.nrl.com.au or www.afl.com.au or www.ninemsn.com.au . Notice how with all these sites they look modern, where as my site looks flat. I i am redisigning my site, what is the main thing i need to concentrate on in order to get it looking more modern. Do i need to change the platform or something to XTML or Javascript or something? Or is it all to do with the colours i choose? Cheers
Honestly, in my opinion, I think your site is decent enough. Sometimes modernizing isnt the best depending on the content of your page. The main thing is you want your site to be navigated with ease; and it looks pretty easy to me. You could change a little of the color I guess (especially border colors and border styles), but its not that important. I would do one thing to modernize it called a 'Fluid (or Liquid) layout'. You already have the container in your css: .container { background-image: url(images/yellowTextureBackgroundBorder.gif); } I would change that to: .container { background-image: url(images/yellowTextureBackgroundBorder.gif); margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } What this does is centers your page in any screen resolution. Very neat in my book. If you would like some basic design done I show can u a few ideas and see what u think for cheap. I will do it for free, but there's no telling how long that would take, since I have other things to do. PM me if u like.
IMO your site looks okay as it is, nice and functional. Could do with being centered, but thats about it. Although "moderizing" it might be good for it, just depends if you have the time/money to do so or not.
I agree with everyone that the site is clean and functional as it is in it's present layout. I too would center it on the page... If you would care to "modernize" it and make it, say, more Web 2.0, I would go with a Joomla or Wordpress platform. I'm partial to Wordpress as it allows you to create a stunning site using the theme of your choice and is easily search engine optimized and monetized using plugins. If you are interested in creating the site yourself, I would suggest you check out this website: http://wpremix.com. This is the most revolutionary theme I have found for the individual who wants to create a professional Wordpress site. It gives you the ability to create a "static" front page and you can brand yourself with the included blog interface. It comes complete with instructions and is designed for both the novice and professional. I highly recommend this theme! Hope this helps!
Thanks for all the feedback. I agree with the site needing to be centred. I tried to explain this to the developer originally, however he struggled to see what i was talking about, and blamed it on my browser. Is there some technical word for centring the page? I am quite happy with the navigation of the site. I tried to focus on making it simple to navigate. I have some further plans to make it easier. For example, I want to get rid of the entire left hand side menu, and just have a menu bar across the top this will also save a lot of room. I am also quite happy with the overall layout with the different sections, so i intend to keep going with the same general layout, as i feel it works quite well. What is Liquid or Fluid? I am quite happy with the overall colourscheme, but i feel the yellow columns down the side look a bit dated, so I plan on getting rid of that and just having a nutreul background like white or a light shade of grey. I am also going to get rid of the grey toolbar across the top of the page. It looks a bit out of place. Once again, thanks for all your hep
The technical word for centering a site is 'centered' haha! If he doesn't get it, just explain you want it 'in the middle'... A liquid / fluid site is one that stretches no matter what resolution you're browsing in, or what size your browser window is - amazon.com for example. Or this forum. My personal / professional opinion on your site - It's nice and clean and functional. Don't mess with it too much. Keep the colours, especially if people are used to that. You can keep the menu on the left as well. It's not that bulky, serves a purpose and gives you valuable ad space underneath. You'll benefit nothing by removing it. I understand what you mean by 'modern' after looking at the other sites. But if you look carefully, and ignore the menus and parts around the ege, you'll see the actual content, the bits in the middle aren't too dissimilar. Really all you need to do is modernize around the edges. It should be too hard if you're willing to center it, adapt it slightly and maybe modernize the logo slightly. If it was me, I'd probably make the right and left side bars an even width (gotta love symmetry), and in the grey bar, put the date or something (keeps it looking fresh), and then with the menu items that were in the grey bar, get some icons draw and have them to the left and right of a centered logo. Because it's sunday, I'm trying to avoid doing any real work, and my flatmate is playing halo3 by himself, I've had a twenty minute play on how I'd probably start to modernise it. Notice the content in the middle hasn't changed. Obviously there's no icons - they take ages to draw and this is just because I was bored... But yeah: http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=99167163at1.jpg As for making it XHTML, the code isn't too shocking, although there are some errors, and it's probably not how I would have done it. But in all honesty, providing google has found it, and you're still getting visitors, I wouldn't panic too much. Enjoy, b.